Andrew J.
Daley was responsible for motion picture exhibition at four
movie theaters near Spartanburg, South Carolina between 1941 and 1944.
He was a licensed projectionist in Pennsylvania when he was drafted
by the Army. He was sent to Camp Croft for basic infantry training.

Camp Croft was one
of 12 Replacement Training Centers (RTC) built to train young men being
called to active duty for World War II.

Construction of
Camp Croft near Spartanburg, South Carolina, began in late 1940. In
May, 1941, the construction was completed.

Shortly after arriving
at Camp Croft, Andrew J. Daley's civilian skills were put to use making
sure the men saw the appropriate training film during the day. At night,
he made sure there was entertainment on the screen to help the other
young soldiers relax and forget their aches and worries.

On Father's Day,
this year, Mr. Daley's son, Jack, called us and put his father on the
line. Mr. Daley shared his memories about four of South Carolina's most
unique movie theaters.

Interview
with Andrew J. Daley, June 18, 2006
By phone to Bellflower, CA

"When I was
drafted in 1941, I was supposed to go in for one year compulsive military
training and then be discharged. But, I was drafted in June and on December
7th, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I remember Franklin Roosevelt
on the radio saying we were in for the duration of the war.

I took my basic
training at Camp Croft [near Spartanburg, SC.] The camp was new, and
they were looking for somebody to run the projectors in the theaters.
Anytime you’re inducted into the service, they want to know what
you’ve done. If you’re a flyer, they put you in the Air
Force. They place you where they can use you best.

So, they needed
somebody who understood projectors for these four theaters. They weren’t
like these 16mm table projector models. They were these big things like
they use in the Radio City Music Hall. They were Simplex projectors
with Peerless lamps and RCA sound like I was running in civilian life.
The Simplex was the advanced model, the latest thing.

I had a Pennsylvania
state projectionist’s license because you cannot do any projector
work in a commercial booth unless you have a state license. My brother
was working in a movie theater and during the winter months I used to
hang around up there with him because it was comfortable. First thing
I know, he was letting me do the work and after awhile he told me, 'I
think you’re ready for the state examination.' So, I went and
took my state examination and that’s how I acquired my license.

When I was inducted
into the service, my job was to keep the picture on the screen. The
theaters at Camp Croft were quite big and very similar to the theaters
outside. Between the four theaters they only had two prints of film,
so one theater would start a little sooner and when the film was finished,
a guy with a Jeep would run it over to the other theater. They just
shuffled it back and forth. A half-hour or forty-five minutes would
give the guy ample time. After the film would come off, they would rewind
it. This guy would put it in a box, put it in a Jeep and run over to
the other theater.

They would run training
films during the day. They would show you how it’s done in training
on film and then they would take you out in the field and want you to
do it. When you were in training, sometimes they would get you up in
the middle of the night just to take you out hiking. But, under normal
conditions you’d get up in the morning, put in your day’s
work and, say, around four or five o’clock you were done. You
would take your shower and have your supper and, then, your evening
was free. If you wanted to go into town or you wanted to take in a movie
you could.

My son Jack and
I were looking through some old pictures yesterday and we picked out
some when Betty Grable was there. Bob Hope was there too. I can’t
recall all the people. You know it was sixty-five years ago.

The films came from
the Signal Corps. I have a picture that shows the safe that they were
stored in. It says on the safe, 'Property of the U.S.A. Motion Picture
Service.'

They were the same
films that would be shown in a commercial theater. They would pick up
the old films and leave us another film. They would advertise what would
be coming next.

Camp Croft was a
basic infantry training camp. It started out that you got twelve weeks
of training. Then, they increased it by another four weeks. They figured
twelve weeks wasn’t enough training. After the training period,
the guys would ship out and in would come another new bunch. There was
a big turnover but they always had what they called the Staff Overhead
which I was a part of. It was just like getting up in the morning and
going to work to do something, you know.

When I went to Camp
Croft we got paid $21 a month. They fed you, they gave you clothes,
they gave you a bed to sleep and you became government property. You
did what they told you. They would say, 'When you were home, you did
it your way. Now, you’re here and you’re going to do it
our way.'

This guy that bunked
next to me, his name was Joe Nader, and Joe says, 'Look, Andy, we get
$21 a month. We could go into the paratroopers. They get about $60 a
month. Instead of walking, we’d be riding.' So, Joe and I signed
up. But, I became very sick. I went to the doctor and he admitted me
to the hospital. Joe went off to the paratroopers but they scratched
me off the list. So, if I hadn’t gone into the hospital, I would
have been a paratrooper. I sometimes wonder if I would have been on
the paratroop drop on D-Day in France.

After basic training,
they put me in the projection booth. They gave me a Jeep and a Sergeant’s
rating. There were three white theaters and one black theater. Back
in those days the colored people were by themselves. They trained by
themselves and they even had their own theater. We had drivers who shuttled
the films between the theaters. There was this one colored driver who
shuttled the film between theater 1 and theater 4. They ran the same
film. He would deliver the film and wait for it. So, he began to watch
the fellows while they threaded up the film and showed it. I knew all
the shuttle guys. They wouldn’t be the same ones all the time.
They got extra money for doing this on their own time. It was my job
to keep the picture on the screen and I needed somebody at the black
theater so I told him, 'You can do this.' So, I had a colored projectionist
too.

During the day my
job was running the training films. It wasn’t training films all
day long. You know, there were films at certain times. In the evening
it was the commercial films and the troops paid regular admission to
see them.

The officers knew
I had a Jeep and some of them would hitch a ride when I had to go into
town. The ones that didn’t have a car had to ride the bus. Sometimes
there were three officers in the back and one up front with me and I’d
take them to town.

At Camp Croft we
used 35mm projectors. When I went to New Guinea in the Dutch East Indies
near Hollandia, I used a 16mm projector. It was a portable projector
and you would put it on a table and project it on a light wall or whatever
you had. We lived in a big tent. I can’t remember how many of
us lived in one tent. Each of us had a poncho which was a raincoat with
no sleeves but it had a hole for your head. Two of us would put two
ponchos together to make a small tent. It was a hot jungle and full
of infections. Two things we had to do every day. We took a salt tablet
for the heat and an Ativan tablet to keep from getting malaria. After
you took Ativan for awhile your skin turned yellow. But, you had to
take it every day in front of a commissioned officer.

After New Guinea,
I was stationed in the Philippine Islands, first in Leyte and then in
Manila. I had a Jeep there, but we still used 16mm projectors. We were
to go to Japan, but they had the atom bomb ready and when they dropped
the atom bomb on Japan, I continued in the Philippine Islands. Otherwise,
I would have gone on to Japan.

I was in the military
four-and-a-half years. When I got out, I went back where I worked before
the war. You know, the government said, “He got drafted. It wasn’t
his fault. So, when he gets back, you should give him his job back.”
But, somebody had my job.

Not long ago Jack
and I flew down to Camp Croft. When we got there, we found out there
was going to be a fifty-year celebration at the end of the month. So,
we went back for that. I went over the roster of those who were there
but I didn’t see the name of anyone I knew. You know, when you
get right down to it, most of the World War II vets aren’t here
anymore. For my age, I’m doing pretty good."

More about
Andrew J. Daley provided by his family

On June 1, 1941
Andrew Joseph Daley was among the first Americans to be drafted, even
though America's entry into World War II was still many months away.
He went directly into the U. S. Army at Camp Croft where he received
his basic training. An Army inventory of his civilian skills produced
a professional movie projectionist license for the state of Pennsylvania.
The Army needed this skill badly at the new post at Camp Croft. Daley
quickly received the rank of Sergeant and responsibility of chief movie
projectionist of the camp's four movie theaters and reported directly
to a Major assigned to the Headquarters Detachment. The theaters showed
training films during the day and entertainment films at night. The
Major and his assistant, Sergeant Travis Taylor were in charge downstairs
of the theaters and Sergeant Daley was in charge of the upstairs. As
chief projectionist, Daley always had a jeep assigned to him so he could
quickly commute between movie theaters.

While off duty,
a favorite place to get away from the camp for a little while was at
a local establishment called the "Tick-Tock", located about
half-way between the camp and the city of Spartanburg. Daley was stationed
at Croft from 1941 to 1944 when he left for Dutch New Guinea and the
Philippines, where he was also a chief projectionist. He was honorably
discharged at the end of the war. Back in civilian life, he moved briefly
near Portland, Oregon, where he met and married his wife. The couple
moved to Bellflower, CA in 1952 and Andrew retired from National Cylinder
Gas Company in Los Angles in 1984.

Sgt.
Andrew J. Daley
Projectionist at Camp Croft

One
of the projectors used
in the theaters at Camp Croft.

Travis
Taylor and Arthur Kaplan in theater office. Safe at right held films
supplied by U.S.A. Motion Picture Service.

Betty
Grable at Camp Croft

Betty
Grable appearing on stage
at Camp Croft theater.

Chorus
line in Betty Grable show

Andrew J. Daley with one of the members of the Betty Grable show.

One
of the Camp Croft theaters
around 1942

All
photos above from
the Andrew J. Daley Collection

Only Camp Croft theater remaining. It is now the David W. Reid Playhouse
and is used by the Spartanburg Little Theater.

Special Thanks

We would like to express
our appreciation to Jack Daley for arranging this interview and to Andrew
J. Daley for sharing his memories of Camp Croft, South Carolina. We
also appreciate the many photographs Mr. Daley shared from his collection.

"In 1947, the
entire acreage of the former Camp Croft was declared surplus by the
War Assets Administration. By 1950, the Army sold the land by pieces
to organizations and businesses, including the transfer of 7,088 acres
of land to the South Carolina Commission of Forestry for the creation
of the Croft State Park. The remaining acreage has been converted to
residential housing, and industrial and commercial businesses."
- Ron Crawley, South Carolina History Net